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State Superintendent: “Homeschoolers Need More Oversight”
HSLDA ^ | May 17, 2011 | HSLDA

Posted on 05/18/2011 11:29:57 AM PDT by christianhomeschoolmommaof3

In her first address to West Virginia’s joint standing committee on education this week, incoming West Virginia State Superintendent of Schools Jorea Marple criticized homeschoolers. According to a West Virginia homeschooler who posted to an Internet group, Speaker pro tem and Delegate Ron Fragale told her that Mrs. Marple said “West Virginia homeschoolers need more oversight, better standards, better evidence of progress; homeschoolers have too much flexibility.”

Delegate Fragale told the homeschooler that “he’s not sure why Mrs. Marple is so negative about homeschooling. Perhaps there are some new board members who don’t have a good impression of it. However, the West Virginia Department of Education could create a new policy that might make homeschooling more difficult in the state.” He recommended that homeschoolers contact Mrs. Marple.

HSLDA Staff Attorney for West Virginia affairs Michael P. Donnelly noted that West Virginia homeschoolers do an outstanding job of educating children and that West Virginia has one of the nation’s more stringent homeschooling laws.

“Mrs. Marple’s comments reflect the outdated stereotypes typical of some narrow-minded government school bureaucrats,” Donnelly stated. “Mrs. Marple should get the facts before painting a bull’s-eye on West Virginia homeschoolers. If Mrs. Marple really cares about educational achievement for West Virginia students, she should study why homeschooling works so well and encourage it, not criticize it.”

“West Virginia already requires an annual notification and annual assessment from every family. Only a minority of the United States require this much interaction between homeschoolers and government officials,” he added.

Numerous studies affirm that homeschoolers outperform their public and private school counterparts on standardized tests of academic achievement. These studies show that increasing regulation on homeschoolers does not have any impact on academic performance. HSLDA is troubled by Mrs. Marples’ comments because they reflect an inappropriate eagerness to impose additional bureaucratic requirements on a population who are doing an excellent job of educating their children. Mrs. Marple should focus her attention on the 280,000-plus public school students who need her oversight, and leave West Virginia’s approximately 8,000 homeschoolers alone.

HSLDA is committed to defending the freedom of homeschoolers in West Virginia and calls on Mrs. Marple to retract her comments and to encourage homeschooling rather than seeking to impose additional and burdensome regulations on it. Mrs. Marples should remember that she is the new and 27th state superintendent of schools in a state where the motto is Montani Semper Liberi, or “Mountaineers Always Free.”

To contact Mrs. Marple:

By email: dvermill@access.k12.wv.us By Phone: 304-558-2681 extension 53304 By mail: Dr. Jorea Marple, state superintendent of schools 1900 Kanawha Blvd., E., Building 6, Room 358 Charleston, WV 25305


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News; News/Current Events; US: West Virginia
KEYWORDS: democrats; donttreadonme; education; frhf; govtabuse; homeschool; homeschooling; hslda; liberalfascism; publicschools; tyranny; unions; westvirginia
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To: christianhomeschoolmommaof3

“..more oversight, better standards, better evidence of progress..”

IMO, that is what the public schools are lacking.

so clean up your own house lady and start by laying off half of all non-teaching personnel. Being good democrats, they are by their DNA all top heavy.


21 posted on 05/18/2011 11:48:48 AM PDT by elpadre (AfganistaMr Obama said the goal was to "disrupt, dismantle and defeat al-Qaeda" and its allies.)
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To: christianhomeschoolmommaof3
One of the things we learned before we started homeschooling many years ago (mid 80's I think ... can't really remember), was that a lot of time is wasted in gov't. schools just changing classes.

Add to that the study halls, ashtray making class, gym (as a separate class and not part of everyday life) and a slew of et cetera's ... the actual study/learning time is only about 4 or 5 hours.

A quick learner (one who says, "Heyyyy, I can do THIS .. ) soon get's his or her day down to a manageable time from 7 or 8 AM to around noon ... school's out.


Considering WV is Rural with a capital R, everyone rides a (more often than not), bumpy ride from 6AM (the earliest I'VE ever known) to about 830AM and returns home the same way. That's about 5 hrs creating and aggravating scoliosis.

Add that 2-6 hr bus ride to approx 2 hrs total classs change/lunch (not including study hall etc.) ... you have a day of indoctrination pretty much equaling the amount of time it takes to go to and fro.


As the gummint school graduates would say in one word, *uck you

22 posted on 05/18/2011 11:51:11 AM PDT by knarf (I say things that are true ... I have no proof ... but they're true)
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To: wbill

The Education Industry (Big Ed, if you will) has homeschoolers in their crosshairs. They know that as long as there are ANY homeschoolers, people will be able to point at them and say that Public Education is a farce and a disaster for children. Without any competition, they will be able to say, and truthfully, they are the ‘best’ there is..................


23 posted on 05/18/2011 11:51:58 AM PDT by Red Badger (Jesus said there is no marriage in Heaven. That's why they call it Heaven............)
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To: karatemom

PA has one of the most restrictive home schooling laws in the country. We lived there for a few years.


24 posted on 05/18/2011 11:52:20 AM PDT by Pete (29thday.org Exponential problems require exponential solutions)
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To: christianhomeschoolmommaof3

Government needs to get the hell out of our lives ...

I’m past fuming and full ablaze

TT


25 posted on 05/18/2011 11:52:23 AM PDT by TexasTransplant (Radical islam is real islam. Moderate islam is the trojan horse.)
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To: christianhomeschoolmommaof3

I’ve gotten similar responses out of leftist defenders when you bring up speeches by those they support:
“well, they aren’t actually DOING those things, so there’s no problem”

No, they aren’t doing those things we find abhorrent, because we won’t let them. But obviously they WANT to do those things, so why put them in any position of power?


26 posted on 05/18/2011 11:52:52 AM PDT by MrB (The difference between a Humanist and a Satanist - the latter knows whom he's working for)
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To: Red Badger

The parallels to the capitalism/communism dichotomy and the Islam/JudaeoChristian dichotomy are painfully obvious.

Communism only looks bad because capitalism exists.
Islam looks bad because Israel exists.


27 posted on 05/18/2011 11:54:47 AM PDT by MrB (The difference between a Humanist and a Satanist - the latter knows whom he's working for)
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To: christianhomeschoolmommaof3

Jorea M. Marple,West Virginny Superintendent of Schools, doesn't like it when students evade her zero-tolerance dictatorship.

28 posted on 05/18/2011 11:55:43 AM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum (Islamophobia: The fear of offending Muslims because they are prone to violence.)
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To: christianhomeschoolmommaof3

How do home schoolers perform on SAT/ACT compared to their traditionally educated counterparts?

That is the only relevent question.


29 posted on 05/18/2011 11:55:46 AM PDT by traderrob6
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To: christianhomeschoolmommaof3
"West Virginia homeschoolers need more oversight, better standards, better evidence of progress; homeschoolers have too much flexibility.”

Aside from that fact that homeschooled kids beat the hell out of government-schooled kids in all sorts of tests and competitions, science fairs and the like...

30 posted on 05/18/2011 11:56:55 AM PDT by grobdriver (Proud Member, Party Of No! No Socialism - No Fascism - Nobama - No Way!)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Guilty!


31 posted on 05/18/2011 11:56:59 AM PDT by WVKayaker (Praise God from Whom all blessings flow!)
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To: christianhomeschoolmommaof3

State Superintendents, school administrators, principals, and teachers need more oversight.


32 posted on 05/18/2011 11:58:05 AM PDT by blackdog (The mystery of government is not how Washington works but how to make it stop)
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To: metmom
Well, is that an admission now that the socialization argument against homeschoolers isn’t valid any more?

It never was valid. I went back and researched the studies that had been done in the late 80's and early 90's on socialization, where socialization is defined as communication and interpersonal skills. In all the studies, home-schoolers fared equal or better than their public and private school counterparts.

The myth that home-schoolers are socially isolated or inept was perpetuated by NEA types. It never made any sense. Think about it. Who is going to be more socially developed? A kid who sits in a classroom all day with 25 peers or a kid who is interacting in multiple environments with people of different ages, genders and backgrounds?

33 posted on 05/18/2011 12:01:17 PM PDT by Pete (29thday.org Exponential problems require exponential solutions)
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To: Red Badger
Yup. Though, I'd venture to say that the kids who are homeschooled (for the most part) would excel in pretty much any environment. There's no substitute for interested parents, and 90% of learning happens at home, anyway. But, it *is* the difference between "Junior is a bright kid" and "Lets see how high this bar can go", to be sure.

The one argument that really stung was with my mother-in-law. She's a former teacher, 30+ years. Lots of ugliness and tears shed between my wife and her.

My personal dislike of her aside, what kind of a grandparent DOESN'T want the very best for their grandkid? I've never even heard of such a thing.

34 posted on 05/18/2011 12:02:10 PM PDT by wbill
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To: traderrob6

I. Independent Evaluations of Homeschooling

1. In 1997, a study of 5,402 homeschool students from 1,657 families was released. It was entitled, “Strengths of Their Own: Home Schoolers Across America.” The study demonstrated that homeschoolers, on the average, out-performed their counterparts in the public schools by 30 to 37 percentile points in all subjects. A significant finding when analyzing the data for 8th graders was the evidence that homeschoolers who are homeschooled two or more years score substantially higher than students who have been homeschooled one year or less. The new homeschoolers were scoring on the average in the 59th percentile compared to students homeschooled the last two or more years who scored between 86th and 92nd percentile. ...

...4. In Nevada, according to Washoe County School District’s data, homeschooled students scored higher than their public school counterparts in first through seventh grade. All children were tested with the Stanford Achievement Test, and homeschoolers consistently scored higher in reading, vocabulary, reading comprehension, math concepts, math comprehension, math and math concepts and application.
The most extreme gap between the public school children and the homeschooled children was in the area of vocabulary. For example, fourth graders in public school scored in the 49th percentile while the homeschooled fourth graders scored in the 80th percentile. ...
http://www.hslda.org/docs/nche/000010/200410250.asp


35 posted on 05/18/2011 12:02:55 PM PDT by WVKayaker (Praise God from Whom all blessings flow!)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum
Yikes, she even looks unpleasant.

Looks like someone is getting even for years of teasing.

36 posted on 05/18/2011 12:03:30 PM PDT by wbill
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To: traderrob6
My oldest daughter went to University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. She was a home schooled kid and scored 28 on the ACT. The admissions counselor went gaga over accepting her. The reason for it was how much she enjoyed home schooled kids who show up for college. "They are prepared, manage their time, and hit the ground running" according to her.

I'd have to agree.

37 posted on 05/18/2011 12:03:55 PM PDT by blackdog (The mystery of government is not how Washington works but how to make it stop)
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To: christianhomeschoolmommaof3

My note:
____________________

A lovely mountain Spring day to you, Ms. Marple!

I thought I was really being innovative in 1992, when my MS thesis, Social Maturity of Home School Children, laid that issue to rest by demonstrating that the home school kids in the sample had superior social skills to add to their already superior academic skills.

I congratulated myself too soon. Turns out that my research merely duplicated that of Linda Pasquerelle, who used the same measurement tool (Vineland adaptive Behavior Scales) a year before I did, on a larger population, in Kanawa County, West Virginia. My findings echoed hers.

Turns out that responsible parents outperform government employees when they educate their children.

People across the USA who love their kids and love liberty where AGHAST when you used your maiden speech to denounce and assail their liberties! Be assured, thanks to the internet, it’s no longer as easy to move surreptitiously against the liberties and families of American citizens. Now that you have announced your desire to infringe on both,
you have come to our attention, and your actions will be carefully scrutinized in the future.

Government bureaucrats need additional supervision. They often get too ambitious, and overreach themselves.

Have a nice day,


38 posted on 05/18/2011 12:04:16 PM PDT by it_ürür (kervan yürür)
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To: WVKayaker

Then Mrs. Marple should STFU.


39 posted on 05/18/2011 12:05:26 PM PDT by traderrob6
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To: traderrob6
I disagree that the only measure is standardized testing but set that aside for a moment. If you google "home school standardized testing results", you will find your answer. Over and over. Here is an example.

Five areas of academic pursuit were measured. In reading, the average home-schooler scored at the 89th percentile; language, 84th percentile; math, 84th percentile; science, 86th percentile; and social studies, 84th percentile. In the core studies (reading, language and math), the average home-schooler scored at the 88th percentile.

The average public school student taking these standardized tests scored at the 50th percentile in each subject area.

From HOME-SCHOOLING: Outstanding results on national tests.

40 posted on 05/18/2011 12:05:58 PM PDT by Pete (29thday.org Exponential problems require exponential solutions)
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